


and I guess I'll just begin again

by GlitterDwarf



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-23 05:45:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10713420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlitterDwarf/pseuds/GlitterDwarf
Summary: Canon-divergent AU where Jared didn’t leave Hooli. With his job and the future of Hooli on the line, Jared decides to try to get close to Richard in order to get the information Hooli needs to win the arbitration. In the process, his loyalty starts shifting.Inspired by three words given by ten-bobcats, “proud, loyal, and faithful”Written as a reward for the #SVAgainstTyranny raffle.





	1. PROUD

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lies_d](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lies_d/gifts).



> For my beloved ten-bobcats/lies_d, who deserves only the best. Hopefully this is good enough.
> 
> Other two chapters will be posted in the next two days <3

A month before the arbitration Jared woke up to a single text from Gavin Belson.

**Don’t forget that we could lose everything.**

Jared took in a shuttering breath, closed his eyes, and quickly sought to center himself. He was in his home, safe in his large, comfortable bed. The sunlight was coming in through the window and felt warm on his face. His sheets were freshly laundered and soft. His breath was slow and even, in and out, in and out. He was safe. He was safe. _He was safe._

After a few more minutes of practicing mindfulness, he opened his eyes again and took a few more deep breaths. It was going to be okay.

But only if he did something. _Be proactive, Donald,_ he thought to himself as he got out of bed. _It’s time_.

 

—

 

The meetings had become an increasing source of stress for Jared, naturally. With each passing day of the Pied Piper crew holding out there were more warning signs from their team of attorneys, reminding them that the future of the company was at stake. This all could have felt manageable but for the fact that their own compression play had yet to achieve any kind of measurable results. As it was Hooli was, well, fucked.

As he ate his breakfast Jared brainstormed on a napkin, doodling words and ideas as they came. Perhaps they could go over all of the security footage in Hendricks’ previous department again? He could go through the boxes of discovery documents again for any kind of inconsistencies or hints at equipment usage. Or he could, well…he could seek the man out and try to get it personally. Obviously meeting with him in a business capacity was out; he wouldn’t dare meet with anyone from Hooli again, especially so close to the arbitration. But maybe if he pretended to be burned by Hooli himself, sought Richard out to “commiserate” and befriended him…

Jared paused in his chewing to consider this. True, it was more morally gray, but was it actually any worse than the other things he had done in the name of company first? Probably not. He nodded to himself, circled “befriend” on his napkin, and pulled out his phone to dial Gavin. 

“So you got my message,” Gavin answered the phone. His speech was even and calm, which meant he was probably in the middle of one of his six-hour-long meditation and Bikram yoga sessions. “Have you thought on what you should do?”

“Yes,” Jared answered slowly, drawing the word out. “Gavin, how would you feel about me befriending Hendricks to get insider information?” 

There was silence for a relatively long amount of time, but Jared knew that Gavin hadn’t disappeared; he could hear his steady breathing on the other line, so he knew that Gavin was merely considering it (or, if he preferred, “meditating on it”). Finally, he responded, “you would have to say bad things about me to make his trust you. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to do that…Donald?”

Jared couldn’t help it; his breath caught in his throat at his real name being used. Gavin only did that at the rarest moments, and it never failed to give Jared a thrill that he was recognized, appreciated, and respected. It almost gave him _pride_ to hear his own name in those rare moments.

“Y-yes,” Jared breathed into the phone. “I could do it for you.”

“Great!” Gavin nearly-shouted, in a jarring change of tone. “Report to me on Monday about your progress.”

The line went dead then. Jared had his assignment, and that was all that mattered. He opened up the opposition research file they already had and scrolled to the information about Hendricks’ social media profiles. Stage I was always research.

 

—

 

First contact with Hendricks took a fair bit of creative thinking. As Jared found out during Stage II (surveillance), Hendricks did very little these days outside the house he lived in owned by one Erlich Bachman. From what Jared could tell, his mark woke up, spent all day either working on Pied Piper or putting company-related fires out, and eventually passed out at the end of the day with very little interaction in the outside world. The few times he left the house were to get the mail, meet a co-worker (and co-incubee) in the driveway, or attend an off-site meeting. The fact that he was clearly eating, breathing and sleeping Pied Piper wasn’t a surprise; he had to be very clever and hard-working to have made it this far against Gavin Belson. In the end, after watching for the bulk of Saturday and Sunday, Jared realized that his best bet was to just show up at the house. He left just long enough to purchase champagne at the nearest grocery store (a domestic, sure, but the highest-priced in the store) and returned to the house. 

As he walked up the driveway, he briefly paused to look into the window. There were several people hard at work at the table, and he recognized them from the opposition research: there was Bertram Gilfoyle, who he has recently discovered wasn’t a citizen yet (this was a pain point that could be brought up and used, if need be) hard at work coding; Dinesh Chugtai (who _was,_ indeed, a citizen), who appeared to switching back and forth between his own coding console and Photoshopping Russ Hanneman’s smile even larger on his face; and on the other side of the table sat the most important of all, Richard Hendricks, frowning at his laptop and typing away. Such resolve, such focus on Hendricks’ face, and Jared could understand in that moment how they could have gotten so far against Hooli. Then, Hendricks looked up and they awkwardly caught eyes in the window. Hendricks’ eyes grew large and confused, and so Jared just smiled awkwardly and did a small wave with his free hand. He pointed toward the door and headed in that direction, hoping that Hendricks would get the point and meet him there.

He did, bewildered and suspicious. 

“Uh, Jared?”

“Oh! You remembered my name,” Jared began brightly. He then shoved the champagne forward to show Richard. “I brought you a gift.”

“Oh, okay,” Hendricks stumbled. “Is this…is this a gift from Hooli?”

Jared made his face fall, and he looked to the ground, hoping that this would convey the right initial level of sadness. “No, it’s not from Hooli. I’m…well, I’m no longer with the company.”

“Who is this?”

Jared’s head snapped back up at the intrusion. Behind Hendricks there was Erlich Bachman, looking nearly exactly the same in person as in photographs (the problem, Jared found, was that Erlich’s commanding presence didn’t translate into pictures). “Is that the Hooli prick?” Bachman pushed past Hendricks and went to shut the door, but Hendricks put his arm out to keep the door open.

“Erlich, it’s okay; I think Hooli fired him or something.”

“Oh?” Bachman responded, somehow fitting a world of mocking tone into one syllable. “Are we supposed to feel bad for him?”

Jared thought this was as good a time as any; he summoned the skills he learned while participating in his high school drama class’ production of The Crucible and started crying. By the time Hendricks ushered him inside there were full on rivers coming from his eyes, and he was quietly whimpering “I saw Goody Osburn with the devil” to himself. Hendricks steered him past the workroom (he presumed that Gilfoyle and Chugtai looked at him as this procession occurred but he didn’t look up to check) and into a room with ample comfortable seating. Hendrick somewhat awkwardly sat him down on one of the couches and then mumbled that he would go get Jared some water. 

Jared waited a few beats after Hendricks disappeared before taking the time to look around the room. He could see from the doorway back into the main foyer that the bulk of the discovery documents were still stacked in there, but there were a fair amount of them in this sitting area as well. The one on the table in front of him looked like printouts of the email communications between Hendricks and Bighetti, which made sense; it was what the Hooli team was still at work pouring through as well, looking for any clues. 

He could hear Hendricks and Bachman arguing in the kitchen; as he found, they weren’t the most subtle of people to communicate with. 

“Richard, he shouldn’t be in here. He’s the _enemy,_ in case you forgot.”

“He isn’t anymore. Hooli fired him.”

“Fired him my beautiful, bleached ass! More like he’s a _spy_ who’s come here to find out what Hooli needs to win the lawsuit.”

Jared didn’t move, didn’t even _breathe_ for a second. He knew that Pied Piper was capable, but he didn’t realize they would figure everything out so quickly. But then Hendricks made a dismissive sound and Jared could breathe again.

“Erlich, you sound like you’re in a really bad spy novel. Who the fuck would do that in real life?”

Who indeed?

“Richard, I’m just looking out for you and for our baby, Pied Piper.”

“ _My_ baby, not our–okay, you know what? It doesn’t matter. He’s here so we’ll just…figure out what to do with him. And who knows? He may be able to help _us._ ”

“Unlikely, Richard, unless ‘help us’ is code for ‘procure a shitty domestic’. Fuck, it’s probably poisoned.”

Moments later Hendricks was back in the living room with him. Jared attempted to look like he had still been crying; he thought back to some of the previous times when he had been crying in front of principals or teachers as a kid and mimicked his body language from then, letting his shoulders shake slightly and wringing his hands in his lap. He only looked up when Hendricks was back, handing him a glass of water.

“Sorry you had to hear all that,” Hendricks began as he sat down in the easy chair adjacent to the couch he had sat Jared down on. “Erlich means well, he always does. He’s just…”

“Intense?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s okay, I’m used to intense. With Gav… with Gavi…” Jared trailed off and let tears come to his eyes again. 

“It’s okay, Jared, I get it,” Hendricks finally said. He was rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, which Jared assumed was a nervous tic. “Gavin Belson has fucked us all, several times.”

Jared looked up, a little alarmed. Had Gavin…

“Metaphorically,” Hendricks said quickly, probably spotting the look on Jared’s face. “Just metaphorically. I just mean that he’s, you know, a fucking asshole.”

Jared smiled a little before he noticed. “It’s nice to hear somebody else say that.” And it actually kind of was. 

“Jared, why did you come here?”

Jared sighed and looked down at his lap, trying to appear as demure as possible. “I was thinking that there are few people who have been hurt as much by Gavin Belson as me…but that you are one of them. For most of those who have been hurt it’s too late to do anything about it. But it’s not too late to do something for you.” Jared looked up then, straight into Hendricks’ eyes. “I want to do anything I can to help you win the arbitration.” 

Hendricks smiled then and looked at his own lap. Jared was a little startled to realize that it was quite endearing.

“I was hoping you would say that.”

 

—

 

Back in his car, Jared paused to write a quick text to Gavin.

**It’s going well.**

The response was almost immediate, a quick **I never doubted you, Donald** from Gavin, blooming a near-overwhelming sense of pride in Jared’s chest.

When he looked up from his phone, Hendricks was watching him from the window. Jared smiled and waved, and was more than a little pleased to see Hendricks mirror his actions. As he drove away he replayed that smile in his mind over and over. Of course he needed to feel genuine affection for Hendricks, in order for his performance to feel natural and trustworthy. And that’s all it was: a performance. It would be okay.

 

—

 

(Though truthfully, and Jared could barely admit this to himself, it wasn’t the first time he had felt affection toward Hendricks. He remembered it starting in his third-round interview for Hooli, when he had responded to Jared’s single question with a well-articulated answer on the importance and function of coding with OpSec in mind. He remembered it solidifying when he would see him teased in the kitchen nearest his station, sometimes, and then see Hendricks just go back to his workstation and work even harder. And then there was, of course, when Hendricks turned down millions of dollars in spite of all logic and good sense. 

In truth, there were other ways of finding out information without having to go there himself. But maybe it was best to not think about this for now, about how quickly he jumped at the thought of seeing the man who was supposed to be his enemy, the enemy of Hooli, the enemy of the progress of humanity due to Hooli’s death. 

And still, that smile replayed in his head.)

 

—

 

The next week passed by. Each day, Jared would go to the incubator and help them all look through the discovery documents that he already knew backward and forward. He would speak with their arbitrator, Monahan, and give him more insight into a made up but still plausible Hooli strategy. He even began to help them corral Gilfoyle and Chugtai into a more cohesive unit that would actually help with the arbitration, immediately seeing how to use their (affectionate, even if they wouldn’t admit it) competitiveness to the advantage of the company. The only difficulty was in Bachman’s apparently steadfast decision to try to block Jared at all counts, and the way that he was continually following him to watch everything he did. Besides being just a bit offensive, it was effective; Jared’s ability to do sneakier, more in-depth searching through the house was severely hampered, something Gavin was _not_ happy about. Every night he gave direction to Jared to do more, to push harder, to find the smoking gun as quickly as possible. And each night, Jared went home tired, obsessively going over strategy in his own head, and, of course, trying to limit how much he thought about Hendricks.

On Friday night, as he was berating his own brain for all of its shortcomings, he got a text from Hendricks.

**Hey Jared…wanted to thank you for everything and maybe bitch about Belson lol. Want to get lunch tomorrow?**

Jared was happy that he was alone at that moment, because he was sure that the beating of his heart had to be audible. With shaky hands he wrote back a reply that he would love to. Over the next couple of texts they made plans, and before he knew it the next day had come and he was sitting in a trendy, gluten-free sandwich place waiting for Hendricks to show up. 

Jared nervously tapped his shoes against the feet of the table, letting the _clink, clink, clink_ lull him into some kind of mini-mindfulness meditation. He breathed in and out, in and out, reminding himself _you are worth it, you are capable, you are loved._ When he looked at the door it was to the sight of Hendricks coming in, smiling and giving a small, awkward wave, and shuffling over to flop down in the chair across from Jared. In a quick and subtle movement, Jared pressed “record” on his phone and placed it so that it would pick up their conversation.

“Hey, thank you for coming,” he said as he was getting settled. Jared jumped in, too quick and too excited, which he would berate himself for later.

“Oh no Mr. Hendricks, thank _you_ for inviting _me_ ,” he said quickly. Hendricks pulled a weird face, then shook his head back and forth.

“Please, Jared, it’s weird when you call me that. I’m just Richard, just call me Richard, yeah?”

“Oh,” Jared breathed. He smiled, then continued, “thank you, Richard.” The other man nodded and gave a small smile.

“That’s a lot better. Way less weird.”

“Hmm, well, that might be the first time somebody said I’m _less_ weird.”

Richard gave a small huff of a laugh, then picked up his menu to search through it.

“Sorry if this place is weird? I don't know, it seems like more people have to be gluten-free or nut allergies or whatever now, and I don't know, you seemed like somebody who might have some dietary restrictions. Is that an assholeish thing to say?”

Jared just laughed at this. “No, Richard, it’s okay. I’m not gluten-free, but I do have some food allergies. You aren’t wrong.”

“Okay good. I heard it’s good, anyway.”

An only somewhat-uncomfortable silence followed as they were choosing their food, alleviated only after they had ordered and Jared was grasping for a conversation starter.

“So what do you normally do on Saturday afternoons, Richard?” 

“Hmm? Oh, I guess I’m just working on Pied Piper, usually, now. Which is weird, because it might not even exist in a few weeks.”

“Really? When do you make time to spend with your girlfriend?”

Richard, who had been picking up his glass of water to take a drink, nearly dropped his glass completely. It skittered across the surface of the table a few times as he scrambled to set it completely upright.

“Girlfriend?” His voice was raised slightly, which Jared found maddeningly endearing.

“Yes, I believe it’s an email from earlier this year where you mentioned a girlfriend.”

Richard’s face made a weird shape and turned a weird color, and Jared enjoyed the view. “Oh, uh, yeah, that was a codeword Bighead and I used. That’s just code for my laptop.”

“Oh!” Jared exclaimed, a little relieved. “Okay, and you don’t have a human girlfriend now?”

“No,” Richard said with a little laugh. “I haven’t had anybody in awhile.” He winced. “Sorry if that sounds weird.”

“No, I understand,” Jared said too quickly. “A man of your talents and business is probably too busy.” 

“Sure, too busy and too undesirable,” Richard said with a bitter little smile. Jared frowned at his words; was he really so undesirable? Jared could certainly see himself desiring… 

“Well, I know that for me it was hard to find time for anything besides work. Gavin Belson kept me so busy. I had to be at his beck and call all day, every day.” This wasn’t exaggeration; he had already fielded multiple calls from Gavin just that day asking for more details and demanding some work for Jared to get done even while he was gone for work on this reconnaissance mission. 

“I can imagine. You were a lot more, uh, connected than I ever was,” Richard said. He paused, then asked, “Jared, is it bad for me to ask what happened?”

“Oh no, it’s okay,” Jared started. He had rehearsed this part with Gavin a few times this past week in case Richard ever asked, so before he spoke he took a moment to remind himself of the pain points to hit and the right emotions to display. “The thing is that Gavin doesn’t do well with people questioning him or disagreeing with him. I’m sure you saw that when working with Raviga. He never let go of how Peter Gregory hurt him. I saw that he was doing the same thing to you, to Pied Piper, and I questioned it. Wouldn’t it be better for us to just have a better compression play? And he said it wasn’t enough, that he had to destroy his competitors. And I just…I couldn’t do it again. I saw that you all were working so hard, and were just _better_ , and I thought of you turning down the money and being so talented. So I told him that I would leave if he didn’t drop the lawsuit, and, well. Here I am.”

Jared had given this entire speech while looking down at his drink. When he looked up his heart pounded and ached to see such a sincere, moved look on Richard’s face.

“Jared, you…you didn’t need to do that. You don’t even _know_ us. You don’t know what you gave up for _us_. We have these problems, so many problems, and I mean…”

At that moment their food arrived, so they had a few more moments of awkward silence as they both began to eat. Jared knew that he had been close, close to at least hearing about the deficiencies in Pied Piper that he needed to know, but he didn’t press it. He almost didn’t want to hear, because if he did it would mean that it was almost time to go back to Hooli. Finally, Jared opened up again.

“Richard?”

“Yes?”

“It doesn’t matter. Leaving Hooli is the second best thing I’ve ever done.”

“And what was the first?”

“Knocking on your door.”

“Oh,” Richard breathed out. There was another long stretch of silence, but they were both smiling during this one.

Jared pushed down the nagging voice that told him that it was true, everything he said was true.

 

—

 

Jared didn’t have time to check his phone for several hours after this. After they had finished lunch they took a walk to Jared’s apartment, which was fairly close (he had walked there initially as well). Richard had examined his DVDs and they had chosen a movie to watch. After the movie Jared cooked Richard a quick dinner, and they discussed more of work and of life during it. By the time Richard left it was quite late, and their hanging out was the best non-really-a-date Jared had been on in quite awhile. 

When Jared eventually looked at his phone, he wasn’t surprised to see so many missed texts and missed calls from Gavin. He finished out the night with a quick phone call assuring Gavin that he was getting closer to getting what they needed, that he wouldn’t need more than one more week. Gavin was perturbed.

“Look, Jared, when I told you to do this I didn’t think it would take so long. Just fuck him already and get what you need.”

“What I…what I need?”

“Yeah, the information. Or to get off. I don’t particularly care anymore, as long as we win.”

“Ye-yeah,” Jared said shakily into the phone, pushing down the mental images that started surfacing at Gavin’s glib comments. “I understand. I just need a little more time.”

“Fine. But this next week I’m not paying you. Just make sure to send me your recordings.”

When they hung up Jared took in a shaky breath, laid down and went into his mindfulness exercises. _Just one more week. Just one more week. Just one more week._

Maybe by the end of the week this wouldn’t be such a bittersweet thought, he mused as he deleted his recordings from the day. Hopefully Gavin would take the news well that there was “a problem” with the files.


	2. LOYAL

Three weeks before the arbitration, Jared woke up to a single text from Richard.

**I had fun last night. Thanks for everything, Jared.**

Butterflies. Ridiculous, unwarranted, uncalled for butterflies, but yet they were there. Jared begged his mouth to cooperate and frown, grimace, or do some other sort of movement that would show the emotion he _should_ be feeling right now–regret, annoyance, _anything_ that recognized how traitorous it would be to make the mistake of falling for his target–but instead he could only grin down at his phone. 

_Oh no_.

His grin stayed as he wrote back to Richard first one, then two, then several messages that he never sent because they were too wordy, too emotional, or gave too much away. For a brief moment he even confessed it all, but then he quickly deleted it. Finally, he sent a quick and simple text back.

**I had fun, too! :) You’re welcome back whenever you want. See you tomorrow.**

Jared decided that he only right thing to do for the rest of the morning would be to double-down on going over the evidence he had compiled so far. Bachman’s protectiveness (which he couldn’t even fault the other man for) had left him with slim pickings, but there was still enough to go on, he thought. Jared carefully wrote down some of his observations from the past week on sticky notes, then stuck them on one of his white boards. After a week of reconnaissance, he had noted the following:

  1. ****Structural problems - mismanagement, lack of organization, always looking for new backers
  2. ****Lack of cohesive vision for future of the brand. Want to be consumer facing despite superior advantages in enterprise deployment
  3. ****In-fighting, notably between Chugtai and Gilfoyle, and Hendricks and Bachman
  4. ****Council appears to be sub-par, easily defeated
  5. ****Russ Hanneman



None of this really spoke to anything that could be used in a court of law, though; what he needed to do was find something that could show a question in IP ownership, not just their dramas overall. 

This is, unless he could use these as “pain points” and find the ways to use them to his advantage. 

He stared hard at the board, wrote down more sticky notes and placed them on the board. 

  1. ****Structural problems - mismanagement, lack of organization, always looking for new backers - ** _Speak to Raviga, find out if their reason for leaving had to do with anything they know_**
  2. ****Lack of cohesive vision for future of the brand. Want to be consumer facing despite superior advantages in enterprise deployment - ** _Look through emails and press releases, track changes in the app and any pivoting they’ve done. Maybe a link can be made between its intended use and what Hendricks was doing for Hooli._**
  3. ****In-fighting, notably between Chugtai and Gilfoyle, and Hendricks and Bachman - ** _Pit them against one another. Somebody knows something._**
  4. ****Council appears to be sub-par, easily defeated - ** _Keep misdirecting him_**
  5. ****Russ Hanneman - ** _Avoid, if at all possible_**



Jared nodded, capped his marker and took a deep breath. He could still do this.

 

—

 

It didn’t take long for Jared to find an opening to start implementing his new strategies. As he entered the incubator he heard shouting from several sources in the house. He recognized the voices of Chugtai and Gilfoyle bickering in the kitchen, which was their usual spot. From the sitting room came the raised voices of Bachman and Richard. He worried that Bachman and Richard’s tiff would somehow be about Jared himself–perhaps a bit full-of-himself to think this, but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities–so instead he headed toward the kitchen. Maybe he could find out what their current loyalty was to the company, and if they could be swayed to leave Pied Piper. Their current struggle at Hooli had been finding other engineers that could hold a candle to Richard let alone figure out how his middle-out compression algorithm worked, so it would be a great advantage to poach people who have worked closely with Richard.

“ _No_ , you idiot, the speed would actually _decrease_ if you–“

“Only if you don’t take into consideration–“

“Are you calling _me_ stupid, you–“

“Morning, gentlemen,” Jared said brightly. The other two men fell silent, Gilfoyle’s eyes narrowing and Chugtai’s eyebrows raising. 

“Can we help you?”

“Oh nothing much, I just wanted to check in on the brains of the operation, as they say,” Jared twittered. The other men continued to stare at him in silence, with increasingly annoyed expressions. “Is there anything I can do for you gents?”

“No,” Gilfoyle said slowly. “But we’ll let you know when we need anything from the Ghost of Virgins Past.”

Jared chuckled and shook a finger in Gilfoyle’s direction. “You’ve got me there.”

“Wait, why did you call us the ‘brains of the operation’?” Chugtai asked. “I mean, you’re not _wrong_ , but few people recognize that we’re the _true_ geniuses at Pied Piper.”

“Oh, I’m sure! I mean, both of you guys are fluent in middle-out compression at this point, right?”

The two men exchanged a look between them, then turned back to Jared.

“We know what we need to know,” Gilfoyle said. “Is there anything that _you_ need to know?”

Jared chuckled lightly, hoping that he sounded affable and inconspicuous. “Well sure, I need to know what you need from _me_. I did work closely with Gavin Belson for eight years so I’m about as ‘in the know’ as a Hooli employee can be. So if you have any questions about the opposition, I’m your man.”

Gilfoyle and Chugtai exchanged a look yet again, smiled, and then turned back to Jared.

“Sure, I need to know what makes a person turn on their previous employer with no problem. You know, just in case we say something mean to you and you turn on _us,”_ Gilfoyle started.

“Yeah, and I need to know why you’ve been wasting your time with _us_ instead of looking for a job. Seems like a waste of time for you.” 

“And _then_ maybe you could let us know why you’ve been sneaking off with Richard for days at a time.”

“Yeah, maybe you could let us know what Richard’s butthole tastes like,” Chugtai said with a laugh. Gilfoyle turned away from Jared to look at Chugtai, his face somewhat bemused with a hint of jealousy in his eyes.

“Why do you want to know what Richard’s butthole tastes like, Dinesh?”

“What, I…you know, the joke is that Jared is gay for Richard.”

“Sounds like _you’re_ gay for Richard, just like you were gay for my code.”

“No! _You’re_ gay for Richard! And fuck your code! It’s shit! It will always be shit!” 

“The heart wants what it wants, Dinesh,” Gilfoyle said, and it was the first time Jared had seen him smile. As Jared backed out of the kitchen to leave them to their bickering, he mentally made a note to update his sticky note to include the information that Chugtai and Gilfoyle were clearly flirting when they were fighting, and that Chugtai wasn’t comfortable with that yet. He didn’t want to exploit that just yet, but maybe if everything else failed it was a pain point he could push against.

Well, that wasn't _exactly_ how he imagined distracting Chugtai and Gilfoyle today, but it would do for now.

 

—

 

It took a few days before he could get an in-person meeting with Monica Hall from Raviga, who he had found out was Richard’s main point-person from the beginning. In the meantime he spent his days as he already had, looking through documents, slowly pitting the Pied Piper team against one another (it was a miracle what eating a few FAGE Yogurts and bringing up tabs-versus-spaces could do to the overall productivity of a team) and continuing to misdirect their council (“yes I’m positive, Gavin is focusing all of his attention on proving that Richard stole the Pied Piper idea from a dream Gavin had back in 1998”). When he finally got to Raviga on Wednesday morning all he could hear in his mind was Gavin’s voice, increasingly disappointed with Jared’s lack of progress. He was determined to make this meeting a successful one.

“So what can I do for you, Mr. Dunn?” Monica asked after Jared sat down in the chair before her desk. “I understand that you’re working with the Pied Piper team now.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Jared said slowly. “How did you know that?”

“Oh, Richard told me last night,” Monica answered with a smile. 

“Do you two…speak often?” Jared asked. His heart rate was already rising with a sudden bout of anxiety; he hadn’t expected this at all.

“A few times a week, yeah. And sometimes he’ll want dinner.” She laughed, then looked past her glass walls toward the office of Laurie Bream. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell my boss.”

“Oh,” Jared breathed. He was mentally rewriting every sticky note having to do with Richard, crossing them out and scribbling across all of them _he’s dating Monica Hall, it’s okay, it’s all okay, he’s dating Monica Hall, stop thinking about him, stop_. “Yeah, I’m sure your boss wouldn’t be thrilled to know that you’re dating someone who used to be a client…”

Monica scrunched up her nose, then laughed a touch too loudly. “Richard? Oh fuck no. _No_. We aren’t dating.” Jared slowly let out a breath he didn’t even know that he was holding and stopped mentally scribbling. It _was_ okay. “He just needs a _lot_ of business help, and I kind of have a soft spot for Pied Piper. They could _really_ use somebody with a bus dev background. That’s why I was so happy to hear that you had come to help them. Your expertise is needed.”

“Yes, my expertise in Gavin Belson is being used quite well right now.”

“Oh no, not that. I mean, I’m sure that’s helpful, but what they _really_ need is somebody who can organize a business, who knows the corporate side. They’re really lost without it, but I’m sure you know that already.”

“Oh, I…I mean yes, I knew that, but I…” Jared had to stop himself. He couldn’t say what he was really thinking, which was that everything Monica had said was _true_. That Pied Piper really _could_ use him. For the first time, he was contemplating what it might be like to actually work _for_ the company instead of be plotting against it. He imagined days spent helping the company get organized, imagined working with their numbers and implementing systems. He imagined mornings in the kitchen, riffing jokes with GIlfoyle and Chugtai until they respected him and enjoyed time with him. He imagined winning Bachman’s trust, and getting him to use more of his coding and management skills for the company. He imagined being free of Gavin Belson, of working for people who wanted him for the work he did, not for what he could be made to do. And mostly he imagined Richard, spending days after days with Richard, weeks, months, _years_ hopefully, helping him realize his dreams and create a company that really _would_ change the world.

“I…Monica, I’m very sorry, but I have to go.”

He might have imagined it, but when she shook his hand and said she looked forward to spending more time with him, it almost looked like she _knew_.

As he ran back to his car and headed to his condo to get things ready, he shot off a quick text to Richard.

**Richard, I need to see you tonight. Can you come to my place at 8?**

By the time he was leaving the parking lot, he got a text back.

**Of course :)))) See you later**

 

—

 

By the time Richard got there, Jared was practically vibrating with nervous energy. It didn’t help that Richard came into his condo smiling, and all Jared could think was that he would soon be wiping the beautiful smile off of that beautiful face.

“Richard, I have to show you some things,” he began after Richard sat down. He began by opening up his documents case and pulling out a proposal he had finished writing not thirty minutes before. “First, I want to show you…well, I guess I first have to ask something. I have a lot to show you, and I would appreciate it if you would be patient and not say anything until I’m done. Is that okay?”

“Sure,” Richard said calmly, much more calmly than Jared would have been able to in his position. 

“Okay,” Jared continued. “Okay, well, first…I wrote up a proposal. For my own employment at Pied Piper. I believe that I could bring some valuable skills to the team, more than just helping with the arbitration. I would be able to help with business development, organization, and I think that I have ample connections from my time at Hooli that would be valuable to your team.”

Richard just nodded, staying silent as he promised, and his eyes skimmed over the proposal.

“But I would like to–no, I _need_ to–tell you some things.” Jared took a deep breath before continuing. “I would like for our official working relationship–if you’re even interested in that–to start off with honesty. I haven’t been straight with you, Richard. I came to you under false pretenses.” He watched Richard’s face for any change in expression, but so far there was none, just the same calm look. “Would you…would you follow me?” Richard nodded, so Jared took him into the bedroom, where he had placed his white board and all of his notes.

Richard walked around and examined the sticky notes and Jared’s notepad, carefully reading everything. After a few minutes, Jared spoke again.

“As I’m sure you figured out, Gavin Belson didn’t fire me, Richard. In fact, he asked me to do whatever it takes to win the lawsuit for Hooli. And I thought that I could come and pretend to be on your side, get what I needed and get out. But I…I couldn’t. I fell in love with the company, with being around all of you. There’s purity in your mission that just doesn’t exist anywhere else, and I wanted to stay around it. I understand if you don’t want me around anymore, of if you want to sue me or anything of that nature but I _implore_ you, Richard, to just consider letting me be a part of your team. If…if nothing else I hope that this room proves to you what I am willing to do for a company when I work for them. Of my _loyalty_.”

The room was silent for nearly a minute, before Richard asked, “can I speak now?”

Jared nodded. His body was back to vibrating; this could be it, this could be the last moments with Richard…

“I already knew, Jared.”

_Wait...what?_

“How?”

“Well, it was kind of obvious. Erlich, Gilfoyle _and_ Dinesh brought it up almost immediately, and it made more sense than anything else.” Richard paused, then laughed. “And then I saw your phone the other night when you went to the bathroom. You were recording our whole night, _and_ Gavin Belson had called you, like, a thousand times.”

“Oh,” Jared mumbled, face red with shame. Why did he think he could do that, could be a spy? _Stupid_ Donald, _stupid_ …

“But it’s okay!” Richard said loudly, probably noticing that Jared was starting to look upset. “I get it. I mean, I worked there forever, I know Gavin can turn the people around him into little Hooli zombies. It’s like a cult, really. It’s actually really impressive that you’re _not_ really like that. And yeah, the guys knew what you were doing, but it was okay. I just told Pete to ignore anything you told him.”

“Why? Why would you be nice to me and let me come over, knowing what I was doing?”

“Well,” Richard began. “It was kind of helpful if you think of it in a backwards way? If you were doing _that_ , then it must mean that Gavin was worried and that his case was pretty weak. We knew that as long as you were there that Gavin didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. Also, Monica told me that we should try to convince you to stay with us because well…we really fucking need someone like you.”

“Oh, well that’s…that’s good,” Jared started. His breathing had evened out, but he was still feeling raw, and cautious. “Does that mean that you want me to work for you?”

“I mean yeah, but I’m a little conflicted.”

“Yeah, I can…I can understand. It must be hard to trust that I could be loyal to you.”

“No, it’s not that, it’s uh…it’s because I think that you probably care a lot about corporate rules and shit like that, right?”

“Well, yes,” Jared said, a little quizzical. What did that have to do with anything?

“And I know in most places it’s bad to date your employees so like…maybe you get what I’m saying…that I kind of, well. I like being around you. And things. And if you were my employee I shouldn’t…you know what? This sounded a lot better when I practiced it with Monica, now it just sounds dumb, and really lame, and you probably don’t even like me that way, and I just ruined having you _work_ for me, too, and I’m just gonna–“

Jared crossed the room in two steps, gently cupped Richard’s cheeks in his hands and kissed him. A bubble of laughter escaped from Richard’s mouth, so Jared pulled back for a moment to make sure he was okay. And he looked okay, more than okay; he was grinning, and leaning into Jared’s hands, and this might have been the best Jared had ever seen him. Radiant, relaxed, and just _happy_.

“Is this okay?” Jared whispered, searching Richard’s eyes for any hesitation. Richard nodded and grinned even harder.

“Yeah, Jared, it’s good. It’s okay. It’s great, it’s…maybe you should kiss me again so I’ll stop making an ass of myself,” Richard mumbled. Jared grinned back, nuzzled their noses together, and dipped back down to cover Richard’s lips with his own. 

_Sometimes, Donald, you really_ can _get everything that you want._

 

_—_

 

When the next morning broke he awoke to find himself still wrapped around Richard’s body, now naked. He gently stroked up and down Richard’s arms until the other man awoke, just enough to turn around and smile at him.

“Hey,” Jared breathed.

“Hey,” Richard laughed. “I like your room a lot.”

“It likes you,” Jared said cheesily. Richard laughed, but then his face fell.

“After I leave this room, though, there’s still a lot to deal with. The arbitration is still on, you’re still with Hooli, and who knows what will happen to Pied Piper? Are you sure you want to leave Hooli for a company that might not exist in a few weeks?”

“Of course, Richard. It would be worth it to be with you,” Jared whispered, then kissed Richard’s forehead. “Besides, don’t worry about Pied Piper’s future. I have a plan.”


End file.
